The German army issued a number of mortars. There was the diminuitive 5 cm Granatwerfer 36, The statandard  8 cm Granatwerfer 34, and the huge 12 cm Granatwerfer 42.  In addition, the German army employed large numbers of captured mortars. Soviet mortars were generally seen by mortarmen as superior to the German ones and used as often as possible. The 5cm mortar was seen as too small and too complex so production was discontinued in 1941. Despite this, existign stocks of  these mortars continued to be used by second line usits along with captured French and Soviet 5cm mortars. They were seen as having one advantage over their larger brothers in the area of portability. Two men could easily act as a mortar team and could quickly move the mortar form place to place to avoid detection. The 8cm Gw34was the standard mortar used throughout the war by the Germans. It was an effective general purpose mortar. A large number of different types of rounds existed to meet a number of different purposes. In 1942 the German army introduced the 12cm Gw42. This was to meet the needs for a heavy mortar which was inspired by and to sextend copied from the Soviet M1938 120mm mortar. Regardless of the size or model of the mortar they all provided indirect fire support for infantry troop and they were highly valued by the ground forces of the Wehrmacht.  

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These photographs were taken from a number of online sources and auction sites.  They are presented here for educational purposes.